Man in Love by Christina Anderson

On Sunday, March 13, 2016, we performed Christina Anderson's Man in Love as part of our series The Second Century. In a grey metropolis during the Great Depression, a group of people from all over the city somehow manage to find love and a good time. But when a string of dead bodies are discovered in the Black neighborhood, fear causes many to search for protection even from those who could potentially be most dangerous.

The Second Century is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

CHRISTINA ANDERSON's plays include The Ashes Under Gait City, Good Goods, Man in Love, Blacktop Sky, Hollow Roots, How to Catch Creation, and Drip. Her work has appeared at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Penumbra, Yale Rep, A.C.T., The Public Theater, Crowded Fire, and other theatres around the country. American Theater Magazine selected Anderson as one of the fifteen up-and-coming artists 'whose work will be transforming America's stages for decades to come'. For two consecutive years, her plays have appeared as one of the top recommendations on The Kilroy's List, an annual industry survey of excellent new works by female playwrights. Awards and honors include 2015/16 Aetna New Voices Fellowship (Hartford Stage), 2011/12 Playwright-in-Residence at Magic Theater (National New Play Network), two PONY nominations, 2011 Woursell Prize Finalist (University of Vienna), National Playwrights' Conference residency at the O'Neill, Schwarzman Legacy Scholarship awarded by Paula Vogel, two Susan Smith Blackburn nominations, Lorraine Hansberry Award (American College Theater Festival), Van Lier Playwriting Fellowship (New Dramatists), Wasserstein Prize nomination (Dramatists Guild), and Lucille Lortel Fellowship (Brown University). Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas. BA, Brown University. MFA, Yale School of Drama's Playwriting Program. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Playwriting at SUNY, Purchase College.

CAST

CHRIS COOK is an actor and seasoned improviser. He has performed at the Brick Theater, New Ohio, Manhattan Repertory, and many found/site-specific spaces around NYC. Recent credits include The Flying Machine (Bare Bones Theater), and 5150: A Playlist on Love and Disaster (F*ckfest). He is a graduate of the William Esper Studio.

JODI McFADDEN, originally from Canada, owes much of her training to her four years at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada and to her two-year Meisner training with Terry Knickerbocker at the William Esper Studios. Most recently she has played Mrs. Lovett in Adam Barruch's adaptation of Sweeney Todd and her dream role as Velma Kelly in Chicago. Jodi spent three years on Broadway as the original understudy to Arachne in Julie Taymor's Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark and was assistant choreographer on a pre-Broadway production of The First Wives Club. Her dark favorites include Cabaret, Into the Woods (Florinda), the North American Premiere of Dirty Dancing (Vivian u/s), Romeo and Juliet, and Pericles (Bawd u/s). Film and television credits include Chicago, So You Think You Can Dance (assistant choreographer), Jeff Ltd. (Comedy Network), Puppets Who Kill, and Bollywood Hollywood.

CAROLYN MICHELLE SMITH's credits include the Broadway productions of Romeo and Juliet directed by David Leveaux. Off-Broadway: Soldier X (Ma-Yi Theater), Hit the Wall (Barrow Street Theatre), Serial. Black. Face (workshop at Juilliard/Signature Theatre). Regional: world premiere of Katori Hall's WHADDABLOODCLOT!!! (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Victoria Stewart's Rich Girl (The Old Globe, San Diego), and Uncle Sam's Satiric Spectacular for the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Film: Romeo and Juliet–Broadway, Full Windsor. Television: Codes of Conduct directed by Steve McQueen (HBO), and the recurring role of Willa Penton for the Emmy Award-winning series House of Cards (Netflix). Education: BA, Fordham Univ. at Lincoln Center; British-American Drama Academy's Midsummer at Oxford; and full-scholarship graduate of The Juilliard School (Group 41).

POOYA MOHSENI is an Iranian-American actor and proud graduate of the Maggie Flanigan Studio. Recent stage credits include Dewey Moss's Death of a Persian Prince, directed by Dewey Moss at NYMITF, SAIPAF, and the DUO Theatre at DMAC; Emily Dinova's Copse, directed by Emily Dinova and Gregory Cioffi at the Winter Madness Festival; and Josiah DeAndrea's A Touch of Forever, directed by Michael Tartaglia at Fringe NYC. Recent film and television: co-starring role on CBS's Madam Secretary, directed by Eric Stoltz; and Jesse Gustafson's Columbia graduate thesis film Day 39, an Academy Award finalist for best student film; and the horror thriller Terrifier, written and directed by Damien Leone.

HUBERT POINT-DU JOUR was last seen in Sojourners (Playwrights Realm). Other New York stage credits include: Angels in America (Signature Theatre), The Model Apartment (Primary Stages), 365 Days/365 Plays (Public Theater), and the Obie-winning plays A Beautiful Day...Great Lakes (Women's Project/New Georges) and A Map of Virtue (13P). Television includes: Happyish (Showtime), The Good Wife (CBS), Law and Order: SVU (NBC). Hubert can be seen in the upcoming film Beat-up Little Seagull (opposite Michelle Pfeiffer). Training: NYU. YoungArts Awardee.

ZACH WEGNER just closed The Glass Menagerie with The Hypocrites in Chicago. His play Hot Steams is available on Indie Theater Now after it was picked 'Best of' the New York International Fringe Festival. As an actor, he recently appeared in Joe Orton's Loot at the Westport Country Playhouse and Lynn Nottage's Las Meninas with New Brooklyn Theatre. NYC stage credits include: God Steeling (Theater 54), Hot Steams (45 Bleecker & Fringe 2014), Organic Shrapnel (Theater 54), The Other Day (Robert Moss), The Deep Throat Sex Scandal (45 Bleecker), Rich Boyfriend (New Group), Harold Pinter's A Slight Ache and The Lover (Cellar Door). Regional: The Other Day (Pilsen), The Skin of Our Teeth (Bristol Riverside), Never the Sinner (TheatreWorks). Television: Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Graduate of the School at Steppenwolf, British American Drama Academy, and often found at HB Studio.